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Dom Robinson reviews
Sapphire and Steel:
Assignments 1-3
Distributed by
Producer:
Screenplay:
Music:
Cast:
Sapphire: Joanna Lumley
Steel: David McCallum
Rob: Steven O'Shea
Helen: Tamasin Bridge
Lead: Val Pringle
Silver: David Collings
Tully: Gerald James
Pearce: Tom Kelly
Rothwyn: Catherine Hall
Eldred: David Gant
"All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling
each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life.
Medium atomic weights are available. Gold, lead, copper, jet, diamond, radium,
sapphire, silver and steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned."
Voiced by an uncredited David Suchet, these are the words heard over the opening credits for each episode and, jesus, did this
bizarre classic used to fucking freak me out, or what? Just look at the opener
of Assignment One: clocks tick all over a house, far too many than any house
would realistically have - in fact, it sounds like "Time" from Pink Floyd's
Dark Side of the Moon. A girl is put to bed by her parents to the tune
of a nursery rhyme, there's an echoing, howling wind in the background. The
tick of each clock increases in volume and, one by one, stops. Time has frozen.
A shimmering hum envelops the house, but only the son of the household and his
sister seem to be around to witness it, so where have their parents gone?
Who you gonna call? No, not them, but the SAS - that's, Sapphire and Steel.
In the 21st Century, when the media attempt to convince the public that there's
a paedophile on every corner, in the SAS world it's still okay to let two
completely hatstand adults into your house without showing their ID.
I could criticise the acting and say that there are wooden performances from
the two leads, Sapphire (Joanna Lumley) and Steel (David McCallum),
but that's the nature of their characters. They stand and stare as they recite
their lines in an almost-monotone but captivating fashion. Then again, maybe
McCallum's excuse was that he could've been one of a number of stunning-looking
elements and instead became a rolled up ball of tin foil. Both have the power
of ESP when they don't want others to hear their thoughts though.
Sapphire ponders her future.
This boxset contains the first three assignments, comprising of half of the
SAS output, and labelled as Assignments I, II and III. The first and last have
six episodes, while the second has eight. The basis for assignment one I have
already mentioned, although the reason for their parents' disappearance is because
they've become trapped in time.
In No.2, a ghost hunter (Gerald James)
makes contact with the spirit of a WWI soldier who's slightly disgruntled about
being dead, but D'oh, if he goes and raises the awareness of Darkness, an
evil force that feeds off the resentment of people who have died prematurely.
For the final assignment in this trilogy, a couple from the future (Catherine
Hall & David Gant) take a trip in time to the present day. As time is resentful
and bitter about this, their young child is transformed into an adult. Try explaining
that one with a 70s haircut. Add to that one of those ginger actors from the
70s in the form of Silver (David Collings).
Steel ponders his haircut.
There's no complaints with the picture. Shot on video in 4:3, it looks a little
soft and at times when people walk about quickly their movement seems a tad
blurry, but I won't fuss about this because it's not distracting and such a
damn good job has been done to remove any print defects - it looks as clean as a
very clean whistle - and I doubt when the series was created that the makers
thought we'd still be watching it over 20 years down the line.
I have a niggle with the sound though. Not because it's mono, as that can
create fantastic effects such as the ticking clocks on Assignment I, but
once in a while the sound is out-of-sync with the picture. Only seems to happen
in the first story, so it shouldn't put you off buying the boxset.
The extras begin with Introductions, several text pages of info about
the crew, plus the cast and a description of assignment one.
Disc 1 also contains a TV Times Article from July 1979 when the series began,
written by Linda Hawkins.
The next disc contains a stills gallery with several pics from the first
three assignments. All are quite small, even though they are described underneath.
Disc 3 contains cast biographies for the two leads plus an Introduction
to Story for this assignment.
The menus have the theme tune and appropriate motion, there are four chapters
to each episode, making 80 across the whole boxset and subtitles come in English
only.
Overall, it's a shame there's not a massive amount of extras here, but SAS is
a must-have at any cost. Buy it now!
Realistic extras were hard to come by in the 70s.
FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
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OVERALL
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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2002.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
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